Sea urchins + JL - Necklace

I’ve been nursing a stinking cold! Unbelievable!!! 30 degrees centigrade outside (and inside, come to think of it, as I try not to use the air conditioner too often) and I’m as sick as a dog!!! :-)

The only thing that could have possibly cheered me up was the arrival of notification that a package was waiting for me at the post office… so I quickly went to see what could be waiting for me! :-)

It was a package from Janice Abarbanel of Naftali!

Remember my post at the end of May about a new necklace I created with Naftali’s gorgeous polymer clay cabochons for her stand at the Bead and Button Show…. well Janice sent it back to me after the show was over… but that is not all…. she enclosed inside the package one of her  gorgeous…… and I mean GORGEOUS… Sea Urchin Cabochon!!!!!!!!! How exiting is that?!?!?! I’ve been ogling at these beautiful cabs since she posted them in her shop!!!! and now I’m the lucky owner of one of them!!!!! thank you sooooo much Janice!!!!!

I was too eager to post about this, but as it’s the end of the day here I was unable to take photos of my urchin (a gorgeous silver-grey one, similar to the one in the top left picture) so instead I will show you some of the Sea Urchins she has available in her shop!

 

Click on the photos above to be taken to the listings and to see more details - These are only some of them! there are more in red, green, lilac and other colours.

and… as the necklace has now returned, I have listed it in my shop:

JL – OOAK Necklace

 
As soon as I get past this stinking cold I will start to create something with my gorgeous sea urchin!!! don’t know what… but something for sure!!! :-)

happy beading everyone!!! :-)

Summer Breeze

The theme for Artbeads blogging program this time is “Summertime”! yeah!!! I love summer!!!!

I was informed that I could choose anything from their incredibly large selection of products from the following categories: Charms, Pendants and Glass Beads.

So I chose the following:
2 14 mm Bermuda blue Swarovski Crystal Cosmic Rings
1 20mm Swarovski Cosmic Ring Crystal Bermuda Blue
3 24mm Faceted Teardrop Pendant Crystal (1 in Bermuda Blue and 2 in Crystal Volcano)
and my favourites at the moment, some Swarovski pearls in cream.

OK, so not the most original of choices… the pearls, well, I just love them… and at the moment I seem to want to only create pieces using Swarovski pearls! and the crystal cosmic rings, although I’ve seen them used quite a bit, I never saw them used within beadembroidery and I really wanted to try them out as well as wanting to try out this Bermuda Blue colour, what better colour to portray the summer!!!! at least for me as I relate summer to swimming, the sea and fun holiday time. I chose the cream pearls to go with the Bermuda blue because I LOVE the off-white/turquoise-blue combination for summer, in fashion, in jewellery and even in home decorating!

So this is what I made:

Summer Breeze – Necklace

Originally, I was going to use the teardrop pendant as a pendant and not beadembroider around it, but the hole at the top of the pedant kept on cutting my fireline and after 3 tries I gave up and decided to treat it as a cabochon. So be aware, although gorgeous, the teardrop pendant is not very good for beadweaving and would probably suit wirework or the use of a metal bail much better, or as I did beadembroidery.

The necklace was beadwoven using hundreds and hundreds (over 700) Swarovski crystal pearls.

I still had the 2 smaller cosmic rings to create something with and I really wanted to make a pair of matching earrings, and here they are:

Summer Breeze – Earrings

All I have left now is the 2 volcano pendants which I will turn into a pair of earring to match a necklace I’m currently working on… stay tuned! :-)

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Disclosure: I am a reviewer of Artbeads.com products and a participant of its blogging program. I received all the components free of charge. This post reflects my honest opinion and Artbeads.com is not compensating me for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

A Novel idea – 1st BAO challenge

Voting has started at the BAO blog!!! Comment on the challenge post on the BAO blog between now and the 22nd June and enter your chance to win a fabulous prize!!!

Vote for your favourite! 

http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/2010/06/bao-challenge-novel-idea.html

Birthday parties and Red Poppies…

I’ve been so busy with the preparations for my son’s 6th birthday!!! Although his actual birthday is not till the 2nd July, due to the summer holidays we had his school party two weeks ago and his big party this past Friday… Who would have thought preparing for a 6 year old party would consume so much of my time!!! OK, so I did go overboard with the cakes…. and I did burn the first 3 I made!!! but all in all they turned our great!!!

This was his cake at school:

He shared both birthday parties with his good friend and neighbour who chose to have the main party at a horse riding ranch! what a brilliant idea that turned out to be!!! The kids had so much fun and it was so nice to have a kid’s birthday party that was different to the usual, and all kids got to ride on the horses!!! Even my brave little Ethan (who was really scared to begin with) absolutely loved it!!!

This is my favourite picture of the day – he looked so cute with his riding hat on!!!

and for this party he wanted me to make him an igloo cake with penguins… and I obliged:

I loved making the igloo and the cake itself turned out delicious!!!! and didn’t melt even in the 36 degrees heat wave we had, which I was really worried about!!!

I am so glad the whole thing is over though… it was a lot of work, worry, preparations, etc. … On his actual birthday I’m planning to take him to the pool for a nice relaxing day and then dinner with my sister and her kids….

And in between all this I also had to deal with my real job, which almost made me miss the deadline to enter the first BAO challenge “A Novel Idea”, but I managed to get it together and here is my entry:

Red Poppy – OOAK Bracelet

This is the first time the BAO are putting on a challenge so I really wanted to make sure I entered!

Voting will take place on the BAO blog between the 15th – 22nd June, so go during that week to check out the entries and vote for your favourite! http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com

The best laid plans….

Remember how in the last post I wrote about Janice Abarbanel of Naftali’s gorgeous cabochons that she sent me…. and how I was going to make something out of them for the Bead & Button Show…. and how I was going to “have to” ship them by Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest!!!…. well… the best laid plans… Tuesday and Wednesday I had to deal with some unpleasant legal stuff, which I won’t bore you with… but I had to deal with it!…. and I thought never mind, I’ll finish the necklace off Thursday morning and send it by 4 pm on the same day…. what I hadn’t taken into consideration was my little boy getting really sick yesterday and having to spend all day trying to nurse him back to health…

he’s a bit better today, still has a bit of a fever but he is on the mend…. So the necklace was finally finished yesterday night… after having made 3 other chokers for it till I finally made this one which I liked the best! (hopefully I will use at least one of the other chokers for something else). Here is the finished piece:

I’m really, really happy with how it turned out…. and hope that Janice likes it too! :-) and…. really, really hope that it gets to the US in time before Janice leaves for the Bead & Button Show! I’m going to send it express first thing Sunday Morning (should take 4-5 days)… this is cutting it so short, but unfortunately sometimes life happens and it interferes with our best laid plans! If all goes well, and you are one of the lucky ones going to the Bead & Button Show, go and check out Janice Abarbanel of Naftali’s booth (#1244) and you should be able to see this piece in the flesh! :-)

Wishing everyone a very happy weekend! happy beading! :-)

Polymer Art of Naftali

About 3 weeks ago I was contacted by one of my favourite polymer clay bead artist and a fellow member of Bead Art Originals (BAO), who asked me whether I would I be interested in creating a piece using some of her cabochons to be displayed at her booth for the Bead & Button Show… would I??? of course I would!!!! Janice Abarbanel of Naftali is one of my all time favourite bead artists!!! I’m the proud owner of two of her pieces which I wear often (see 2 photos below, back and front of one of the beads I own) and a few cabochons which I’m yet to do anything with…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I was extremely honoured to be asked!!!! Her work is incredible!!! and last week I received my little package with the following cabochons:

Please note, the pictures do not do justice to these beautiful cabs! Although I was sent photos of a few cabs to chose from, and chose these two… once I opened the package and saw them in real life I was amazed by their beauty and richness!!! I specifically chose these because even though I love this colour combination, yellow and grey, yellow is a colour that I tend to avoid using… not sure why… but I like challenging myself, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do so!

I started rummaging my bead stash for complimentary beads so that I could start working on these… I found the perfect seed beads, dark metallic grey, that I had purchased a while back without having any notions of what I would do with them… and they are a perfect match for the cabs… plus I found some yellow beads, bought because I wanted to get over my fear of using yellow and never used them… and started working on the first cab:

I do have to get on with these as the show starts on the 6th June, and I have to send them to the US before that date!!! I hope to finish it by Monday the latest so I can ship them (express) by Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest!!! Guess what I’ll be doing all weekend? :-)

Please take the time to go and check out Janice's websites, you will not be disappointed!!! and, if unlike me, you are lucky enough to be attending the Bead & Button Show, go and check out her booth and hopefully see this finished piece in real life, as well as Janice's amazing polymer art beads!

Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Naftali
Website: http://janiceabarbanel.com/
Blog: http://janiceabarbanel.blogspot.com/

Here are some of my favourite pieces from her Etsy Shop:

I’ll be posting more pictures of my progress with these gorgeous cabochons as I go along, so come back and check out how it will develop!

Happy beading everyone! :-)